How can improve English Listening Ability

I ask you guys how to reach the "News-Listening Level".

Does anyone have any idea ?

Use sub-titles

Listen to the news as much as you can. Listen even when you're doing other jobs until your ears feel similar to the voice. Gradually u'll be able to understand the news even if u're not paying full attention to it. Frankly, I find listening to movie line much more challenging because the actors often speak with varied accents and dialects while the newsreaders normally have a standard accent

You could try listening to programmes with sub-titles. The other thing you could try, is recording a programme, and listening to it more than once.


Particularly with News items, they often are part of a continuing story. So, you would not expect to understand everything, the first time that you listen. Different countries, different TV stations, have different ideas about what is of interest to their viewers and how to present the information.

Try YouTube


Google Video: 'english subtitles' 'british news'

Zeitgeist Part 3 - Hearing Impaired [english subtitles]

http://www.truveo.com/Zeitgeist-Part-3-Hearing-Impaired-english/id/2168564929

(I have watched this video, I would take it with a pinch of salt.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeist,_the_Movie

It might be better to do a search 'hearing impaired' 'english subtitles'.


This is more orthodox:

Obama Phil. speech on Race - 1/4 - en Español and English

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F7_OUeuHU8

You want to improve your listening comprehension?
I'll tell you an easy trick:
• Shave your head
• Paint your windows blue
• Shave your head again
• Eat an ant

That should work miracles.

Listening to a video with sub-titles doesn't help much to improve listening ability. What has helped me was the following. Take a recording in English (a short story, a play, a song with proper pronunciation) and listen to it as many times as possible without any written text before your eyes.

It might me boring to listen to it sitting home and doing nothing, so you may want to do it on your way to work or walking in a park. It may be helpful to read the script (the text of the audio) fist, check the unknown words etc., but never peep into the text while listening.

The more you listen to the very same recording, the more you contribute to your listening ability.

I personally listened to the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' (radio-play). I'm still a great fun of it :)

Music can be a very effective method of learning English. In fact, it is often used as a way of improving comprehension.
I recommend you to check www.vocabularybuilding.org. Its a great site, contains lots of words, learning videos and tips as well for English exams.

Hitchhiker is good :) Yes, I think LM has the right idea - it's got to be something that grabs your attention. Shorter is better. So is a narrow range of subject matter: weather reports are easier to understand than the news at first (but not all that interesting). Stick to sports news if you like that. You need to know the words used so look some up every day. Stick to a standard accent if possible. Repetition is crucial. Subtitles are OK the first time round, but otherwise you are spending half your brain power reading instead of 100% listening. Likewise, visuals give good clues and context, but after viewing, rip the sound and use the audio only. Visuals make it too hard to concentrate on listening. Movies are difficult and there isn't always a lot of speech. Songs, while entertaining, are no good for listening practice. Singing isn't speech although it uses words too. Listen often in small doses and give it 100% attention while you do. Background listening isn't effective. Keep at it and don't get discouraged. You will improve, but it takes a lot of listening throughout the day - every day. Above all enjoy what you listen to.